Hibiki's Choice
by GenChaos
Summary: Hibiki and Dita find feelings growing that they didnt know they were supposed to have.


Hibiki's Choice  
  
The Nirvana streaks through the heavens, steady on its course back to the Tarrak/Majel star system. But inside this transformed battle cruiser lies the real journey. For the first time in three generations the inhabitants of Tarrak, an all male planet, and Majel, an all female planet, find them selves together having to learn to get along with each other. In the past few months, the female crew and their 3 male "guests" have had to learn teamwork and trust very quickly in their struggle against the Invaders. After one of these exhausting battles Hibiki, the reluctant Vanguard pilot, finishes repairs on his beloved Van and begins the long walk to his quarters. As he passes the mess hall he hears a familiar voice pierce the recycled air, "Ojouigi-SAAANN!!!" As Hibiki turns to face the high pitched voice.BANG! Wrapped in a deceptively strong embrace Hibiki hits the deck with all the force the extra, although shapely, weight and the artificial gravity can create. As the load settles Hibiki feels two large soft mounds pressed against his chest. The sensation has become a familiar one since his reluctant acceptance as a member of this crew. At first it was a very disturbing feeling each time this Female wrapped her self around him. But as the months have crawled by the feeling has become almost enjoyable.  
  
"Dita. Get off of me!" huffs Hibiki.  
  
"But Ojouigi-san I have been waiting to see you. I made you a special Obento. I have it in the mess hall. Come and eat with me Ojouigi-san, please!" Dita squeals into Hibiki's ear.  
  
Hibiki feels a smile come to his face and he can't understand why so he shakes his head and feigns anger.  
  
"Let me up! I'm not hungry."  
  
As Dita eases her self up to her hands and knees Hibiki catches a glimpse of her cleavage peeking over her very form fitting tank top. Again the unknown warmness shoots through his body and he quickly scrambles to his feet. As he looks down at the kneeling girl before him he makes contact with her eyes. For what seemed like eternity to him he could not break the gaze between them. He felt in this one instant a connection that he could not put words to, but that sung like a choir of angles to the very depth of his being. In the foggy mist that was his mind he offered her his hand, Dita, also caught in the moment accepted his hand and with his help rose from the floor. As she stood before him locked in this paralyzing gaze Hibiki had but one thought. 'Beautiful.' Never has a Man of Tarrak ever called anything beautiful. In Tarrak things were purposeful, useful, and even pleasing to the eye, but nothing was ever beautiful. Hibiki finally blinked, breaking the spell that held him and this female named Dita.  
  
"I got to go" he said in an uncharacteristically shaky voice, as he turns to leave.  
  
Dita quickly reaches out and gently pulls his sleeve, and with the softest, gentlest voice Hibiki has ever heard says, "Ojouigi-san, have lunch with Dita. . . please." Hibiki darts his head back around and sees her face blushed a light crimson red from the tops of her smooth cheeks up to her softly rounded button nose. He feels the lava that is his blood shoot to his face in what he can only assume a copy of the face before him. With out saying another word he pulls himself away from the mental if not physical restraint he feels coming from this girl and bolts down the corridor as fast as he can.  
  
Hibiki finally reaches his room with the perspiration of his mad sprint though winding passageways heavy on his brow. As he enters in to the room he grabs a pillow from his bunk and cowers in the back corner of his room. "What is happening to me?!" he asks himself in the dim light of the room. He is trying to forget the events of the last few minutes but his customary bullheadedness is not dismissing these events from his mind, he cannot forget nor understand the thoughts and feelings he just experienced. Hours pass and Hibiki has not moved, his every thought comes back to the same questions his conscious mind continually attempts to ignore, "What am I feeling? What does this mean? Why do I feel this way only around that girl?"  
  
As Hibiki's mind continues to swim he lifts his head and for the first time notices what he has been squeezing all this time. It's a pillow. No, it's her pillow. He stares at the light blue and grey alien sewn on to the fabric of the pillow. As he stares at the pillow he hears a knock coming from the front of the room. Deuo is standing there with a piercing one eyed stare that could find its why to the very essence of a man's soul. Now that Hibiki has noticed his presence he begins to speak.  
  
"You have not moved in over an hour. I was about to come in and check to see if you were still alive."  
  
Deuo casually walks in and sits on the edge of the bunk. He partially lifts his head in a manner that exudes an indifference that only comes from a sincere concern.  
  
"You are a popular one today," he speaks as he extends his arm to offer Hibiki a folded letter.  
  
Hibiki reluctantly takes the folded note and just looks at the neatly written hand writing on it. It is clear that what was once the beginning of an O and J have been erased and replaced with one word, 'Hibiki.'  
  
Deuo rises to leave, as he reaches the entrance he stops and with out turning says, "I have never seen that girl so serious, do not take lightly the contents of that letter." With that he leaves as suddenly as he appeared. Hibiki is left alone in the darkened room once more. He stares at the note not knowing if he should read it or just put it away. After a few moments of internal debate he opens the folded sheet. He scans the few lines written in the same meticulous script as his name on the front.  
  
Hibiki-san,  
I need to speak to you. Please meet me in the observation room tonight at 2100. I'll be waiting for you.  
  
Dita  
  
Hibiki-san? Had she ever called him that? Why is this obnoxiously bubbly girl writing so seriously for? What does she want to talk about? What should he do? Should he go? What will happen if he doesn't? So many questions are running through his mind. What time is it? Its 2000 hours, still one hour to go before he has to meet Dita. Why is this happening? Just a few short months ago women were nothing but monsters bent on the sole purpose of devouring his innards, now he was going to have a meeting with one alone. But look at how much has happened to him and the crew of the Nirvana. He feels different. He has been feeling more like a man in the short months with these women than all the years laboring as a third class citizen on his home world. Is the video they found on Christmas for real? Did Man and Woman once live together and make babies together? Is that even possible? These feelings he has had and the warmth he has felt, what are they? Why does he feel so light when she is with him and anxious when she is not? Hibiki begins to remember the words spoken to him by his grandfather about the times before the great split between man and woman. Grandpa told him once the only thing greater than a woman's fighting spirit is her love. He never knew what it meant before. Could this be the feelings that grand pa meant? 15 minutes left, he has to make a choice, to go or not to go. What will he say if he does go? Will she hate him if he doesn't?  
  
As Dita's Dread docks in to the Nirvana she can barely keep in her seat with excitement. The Support crew barely gets the exit ladder up to the cockpit hatch when Dita explodes from the hatch and nearly doubles over herself coming down the ladder. As her feet hit the deck she starts running towards the hanger exit. Before the call to action she had spent all morning making an extra special lunch for Ojougi-san. She always put her all in to the gifts she has made for him. It made her happy to create different things for Hibiki with her hands. She couldn't remember a time since she meet him that fateful day following the attack on the new Male war ship by her and the rest of the Female Pirates of Majael that she didn't think of Ojougi-san every day. Although he never seamed to be appreciative of the gifts of friendship she would offer, well except the food, she still got this warm tingly feeling in the pit of her stomach every time she would make something for him. Dita would even stay up late in to the night cooking or sewing new things for this Man. Her newest joy came whenever she would join with Ojougi-san in the battlefield to form Vandread Dita. Being able to be that close to him, even for a short time, was exciting. And more recently, she has been getting a warm feeling all over her body during these close encounters. She could almost feel his body heat rise during the heat of combat, and this in turn would make her body blush. It was a strange sensation, but she enjoyed it each and every time. And on the night that the old colonizing video was broadcast through out the ship and she saw how happy the man and woman looked together with the child a picture formed in her mind of herself and Ojougi-san being happy like that together. Now almost every thought she had was of Hibiki and she was filled with a warm fuzzy sensation when she did. It was then that she decided the that she didn't want to not feel like this ever again. She was going to ask Ojougi-san to be with her forever. Dita spent weeks cooking and offering many different foods to Hibiki to find out what were his favorites. This in itself was a monumental task because everything hibiki was offered we wolfed down with a speed and delight that was almost dangerous to be around. A few times Dita thought he would eat her as well. But she always noticed that there were a few items he would always go for first. The curried rice and rice balls were always the first to disappear followed by anything that had tuna in it. With her menu ready she spent all night preparing a double helping of Curried rice with mountains of rice balls of all sizes wrapped delicately with seaweed, two serving plates filled edge to edge with tuna and rice rolls and to top it all she baked four of the largest tuna fillets she could find with lemon and basil. She even went to all the trouble of making sure all the crew would stay away from the corner of the mess hall she "reserved" for her lunch with Ojougi- san. Luckily the battle didn't last long. She would still be able to eat with him and she would definitely tell him today all of her thoughts. These were the thoughts running through her mind as she went over to the Vanguard storage hanger to find Hibiki. He was gone when she got there. Gascogne told her that he had been headed to his room when he left the hanger after his repairs were done. Dita smiled brightly, this was even better, his path to his room went right in front of the mess hall. All she had to do was convince him to come inside with her. She quickly spun around and started running after him.  
  
With the speed of her enthusiasm she quickly catches up to Hibiki and calls for him. As he turns around she once again is overcome with the urge to wrap her self around him, squeezing her body to his.  
  
"Dita. Get off of me!" shouts Hibiki.  
  
"But Ojouigi-san I have been waiting to see you. I made you a special Obento. I have it in the mess hall. Come and eat with me Ojouigi-san, please!" she squeals into Hibiki's ear.  
  
As he shrugs off Dita's embrace he says, "Let me up! I'm not hungry." Even with the apparent anger in his voice there was something in his eyes that was not anger. As Dita supports her self on all fours and slides back onto her knees she notices Hibiki's face crimson from neck to cheeks. As she looks up she stares right in to his eyes. Like the birth of a new sun, she feels her heart explode. In what she can only describe as a tidal wave of emotions, something wonderful engulfs her. She knew what love was, she loved lots of things, but this was stronger than anything that she ever known. In the few seconds that they held each others gaze she knew at that moment, at that instant, the ultimate meaning of that four letter word, love. He held out his hand to her and with an action done with out thought, she took it and rose to her feet. As she stood there with her head down Hibiki steps back and says, "I got to go" She feels a tinge of fear fill her. She knows somewhere inside her heart that she cannot let him go. Out of instinct she reaches out and grabs his sleeve, and with a longing in her heart she speaks.  
  
"Ojouigi-san, have lunch with Dita. . . please."  
  
Dita can feel her heart beating hard like a bass drum. The fire that is her blood surges through her body. She waits for Hibiki's answer like a man on the execution block waits for the death blow. She feels the quick tug at her fingers as Hibiki turns and runs down the corridor. As she lifts her eyes to see him dash around a corner, her world shatters. Like a lifeless hulk devoid of all emotion, she shuffles through the ship towards her quarters. In the same instant that the door slids open, the flood gates that held back the ocean of tears opens as well. She throws her self on to her bed and sobs uncontrollably into her pillow. The massive sobs rock her body, filling her with a dull pain. Why did he run? Why does Hibiki hate her? Awful self loathing thought creep in to her mind. "I'm ugly and no fun, I annoy and pester him all the time, that's why he hates me!" She sobs harder with each thought, each sob taking her breath away. Her lungs begin to pain her with every breath and her eyes become red and swollen, the tear ducts beyond the limit of their production ability. She gets up from the bed and stagers to her wash basin. She runs the water and begins to splash her face. Then she looks up in to the mirror and sees her puffy drenched face. And slowly like a new dawn, a smile breaks her face. Looking at the mess of her face it occurs to her, how can she, the optimist aboard the Nirvana, be this way? Did she not promise her self long ago that she would not be sad ever again? Now look at her, reduced to blubbering like a child. Could one person mean so much to you that anything they say or not say can brighten your world like a sun or demolish it the same instant? As she dries her face she sits back on her bed and clutches the pillow once more. Gascone once told her that the more you care for someone the less they have to do to hurt you, and the more you can forgive. She didn't know what it meant then, but now she knew. She loved Hibiki, and no matter what happened that would not change. Even if he hated her in return, she could not imagine not feeling this way for him. As she reached for the towel to dry her face again, she made a decision that no matter what happened, she would confess to her beloved Ojouigi-san tonight, no matter what. Dita walked to her desk, took out a piece of paper and with a flourish begain to write the first letters of Ojouigi-san on the folded side. Then, with a sudden change in heart, she sloppily erased the two letters she had hastily jotted down and replaced it with the neatest lettering she could and wrote a single word, "Hibiki." She spoke the word out loud as she wrote it. She liked to say it, it made her feel warm inside. "Now what," she thought. First thing was to decide what to say. Should she just write to him all that was inside of her? No, she wanted to see him and tell him. Then where should she tell him? Maybe she should stick with her original plan and bring him to the cafeteria. No that wouldn't be good, lots of people would be there eating. Maybe in her quarters? Fat chance of that. How long has she been trying to get him to play in her room with out success. Dita begins to muse out loud, "I need a place where we can be comfortable and feel relaxed." As she gazes up at the ceiling in thought she unconsciously begins to chew on the pencil end. Then like a Jovian bolt, it hits her. "The Observation Room! We can have a picnic. I will bring the food I made and while he is eating I will tell him how I feel." Dita looks at the ship chronometer on her wall, "I will ask him to meet me there at 2100, to give me some time to make sure every one stays away from there for a while." Then, with a purposeful stride, she leaves her room looking for Dueo. She knows that she can trust him to deliver the letter for her while she makes her preparations. She winds her way to the Medical bay and finds Dueo alone. With a resolve steadfast as the Rock of Gibraltar she steps to him. "Sumimasen Dueo-san, I would like you to deliver to Ojoui ... Hibiki-san this letter for me. It is very important that he gets this. I cannot deliver it myself at the moment. Would you be so kind as to make sure he receives this in my behalf?" As she extends her hands with letter clutched in them she bows deeply at the waist. Dueo rises from his seat and with an impassive visage betrayed only by a brief flash of surprise from his visible eye gently takes the letter. "He will get this letter." Are the only words he utters as he turns to retake his seat. Dita bows again and thanks him with a single "Arigato," and she turns and runs out of the bay to prepare.  
  
Hibiki had to make a decision. It was now or never. He was not going to be scared. It was just a woman. There was no reason to not see her. And he was even now ready to admit that he wanted to see her. sometimes. OK well all the time. How did this happen? When did he begin to think about her so much? He could not remember when or how, but even in his dreams she would appear. But he cant think like that. He will face this like an attack from the Earth, a challenge to attack and over come. He looks at the chronometer, 2050. He can make it to the observation deck in 10 minutes.  
  
Meanwhile Dita paces back and forth in the observation room, too nervous to sit down. 10 minutes before 2100. She can barely contain the giddiness inside her. She tried to think of how she would say all the things in her heart, but she couldn't think strait. As the last thirty minutes ticked away she tried forming her words in many different ways, from strait serious(that only made her laugh more) to acting out a little puppet play(she even made the finger puppets). But with the final minutes ticking down she decided that she would just say what ever came to mind with him.  
  
Hibiki stops at the door of the observation room. This is it he thinks to himself. He has no more time to think, he needs to decide what he feels. He thinks to himself, "Oh forget it, I was never very good at thinking about things I will just do what I feel when I feel it." He steps up to the sensor range and the door slides open with a whispered swish. He sees her Dita standing there, he notices that her hair is neater than usual and there is a slight odor of flowers in the air.  
  
She notices him walk in just as the clock flashes over to 2100. He looks a mess. It looks like his hair had been pulled up at the sides. And he is still in the same set of cloths from a few hours ago. She can even tell the strain in him from some sort of unknown effort. It makes her heart skip a beat to think that he had been thinking of her so hard that the effort is visible for anyone to see. She struggles to repress the little smile she feels pushing at the corners of her mouth.  
  
As Hibiki walks towards the statuesque figure with shapely figure standing like a light house in a storm calling him home, that feeling begins to well up inside him once again. He can feel him self turning red. He can't help but think again how beautiful she looks. He walks up right to her and looks her in her smiling eyes. This time the Infinite stare is welcomed by Hibiki. He begins to examine her face closely for the first time. Each curve of her face slowly being etched into his memory.  
  
Dita locks gazes with him. The feelings churning inside her confirming her earlier discovery, this was love. She feels his eyes tracing her face. She can almost feel the path of his eyes. After a few moments of this it occurs to her that she needs to tell him something before he loses interest and leaves.  
  
At that same moment Hibiki breaks his voluntary hypnosis and askes, "Did you need to see me."  
  
"Y-Y-Yes, I uh. I uh made you an obento. I wanted to give it to you earlier but." Dita stammers out.  
  
With a greater reddening of his cheeks he turns his eyes down and turns his head to the side in embarrassment, "Yeah, I . I wanted to say. you know, about that. I.I'm."  
  
Dita quickly tries to ease his struggle, "No its ok, I understand."  
  
"No, I want to say it," Hibiki adds. "I'm sorry I left with out saying anything.I .I ."  
  
Again Dita saves Hibiki from himself and changes the subject, "Lets sit down and eat. Hibiki." She tests out how it sounds out loud in front of him. Hibiki is stuck silent at hearing his name coming from her soft lips. They sit down on the bench with the obento in between. Hibiki can not hide the grumble that comes from his stomach as he sees the mini feast before him. Dita lets out a giggle. "You can eat Hibiki, I know you are hungary. Besides I want to say something to you while you eat." Hibiki feels a pang in his stomach that isn't caused by hunger. This is it, the moment when he finds out what she has to say. But his male nature moves him to pick up the laden boxed lunch and begin to eat. With a satisfied grin Dita watches him delight in her cooking and feels a bit of pride that pushes her to continue.  
  
Hibiki, ever since I could remember I have been fascinated by Aliens and things from other worlds. And when I became a space pirate I thought I would get to finally see a real alien and make contact. I wanted to be friends. When I saw you I could not keep back my excitement. A child hood dream come true. That is all I wanted, was to be friends, to play with you. But I have grown up a little since then. I know I annoy you sometimes, but I cant help it. I just want to be near you. As the days have passed I have felt like this more and more. I think of you when I'm awake and when I'm asleep. I get a warm funny feeling inside when I'm near you. That feeling is what makes me want to hug you so much. I didn't know what is was before, I just knew that it made me feel happy when you were near me, so I wanted to make that feeling last by being with you all the time. I had planned to tell you that today. That is why I made this lunch for you. I wanted to make you happy and make you Dita's friend. I wanted us to friends forever. But after you left me today, I felt bad. I cried very hard because I thought you didn't like me. That made me hurt more. Then I understood, I cried because I care for you so much. I care for you so much I don't mind being hurt if its by you. Gascongne was right, she said that if you love someone you will support anything that person does. So I decided that, even if you hate me, I would like to be by your side. I'm sorry that I have talked for so long, I just had to get it off my chest, sumimasen"  
  
After she began Hibiki, stopped eating. As he listened to her emotional outpouring a lump formed in his throat. Could this be happening? Had Dita been going through all of this because of him? He could not stand this. As he looked at her he could see the pain and Joy mixed together in a collage of emotion on her face. But even as he took in all that she was saying to him he saw a longing for in her eyes. He saw a longing and an insurmountable hope in her eyes that reminded him of his grandfather when ever he would speak of the old days when Man and Woman lived together. In that moment as she asked to be by his side for ever, he knew that he would never leave her side. After all the suffering and mental turmoil he has been through he finally realized what had been there the whole time, He loved this woman named Dita.  
  
Dita felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from her chest. With a small sigh of relief she lifted her eyes to face what ever he had to say to her. As she looked up she saw silent tears falling from Hibiki's face like waterfall. Aside from the water leaking from his eyes his face was as stoic as ever she had seen it. It filled her with a tinge of fear, she had never seen a man cry before. In a soft voice filled with apprehension she said, "Hibiki, are you crying?"  
  
Hibiki never even noticed when his eyes had begun to tear nor when the tears started to fall. But her last words brought him from his own thoughts, and he quickly brought his hands to his face and felt the wetness over his cheeks. As he looked at his wet fingers he began to laugh. As Dita opened her mouth to speak he reached out with his other had and touched her lips silencing her. He blinked a few times to clear his vision and a serenity he has never known filled him from head to toe. "Dita, It was just now, after hearing you speak, that I realized that I have loved you too from the beginning. I just didn't know what it was. I was mean to you because I was afraid of all the weird feelings I had and I didn't want you to see me as weak. Men don't show emotions like these. I never knew we could feel them. But I know now, and I'm sorry for making you hurt." With tears now falling from Dita's face she manages to croak out through silent sobs, "S.sa. say. say it again, Please." Hibiki smiled through the tears that keep flowing from his heart through his eyes, "I love you Dita." With that Dita flung her self to him and wrapped him up in a mad embrace. Dita pushes her face against his mixing their tears. As she opens her teary eyes she looks at Hibiki and smiles. Then with no more words left to say he kisses her. 


End file.
